Apparatus for feeding wires



sep@ s, 193s.

J. F. DoNovAN E-r AL 2,053,946-

ARPARATUS FOR FEEDING WIRES Filed oct. 12, 1934 2 sheets-sheet 1 7 nventors: 7 John T Donovan,

George Illingworth,

8 1936. J., F. DoNovAN Er AL' 2,053,946l

APARATus FQRFEEDING WIRES Filed oct. 12, -1934 2 sheets-smet 2 l John FT Donovan vGeovge Illingworth, A by Hmm] 5MM .Their Attoey Patented sept. s, 1936 2,9%39946 lUNITED STATIEIS PATENT FFICE APPARATUS FOB FEEDIHG John 4F. Donovan and George Illingworth,

Cleveland, Ohio, assignor's to General Electric Company, a corporation of New York e Application october 12, 1934, semi No. 148.009 'c claims. (di. 14o-isz) Our invention relates to apparatus for feeding it has also been found desirable to. agitato the wire lengths and more particularly to apparatus wires by puffs of air emitted from holes in pipe. for feeding leading-in wires for incandescent 3l which is connected to and supported by cap lamps and other like devices into machines for 2|. The airpasses into the pipe Il from es l 5 the manufacture thereof. Our'v apparatus is'asin cap Ilfpipes 22. 23 and 2l, the latter pipe 2l 6 sociated with the manufactureo! stems for said being connected through pipe Stand flexible hose devices which are made on machines comprising 33 to a source of air controlled by a valve operated va plurality of heads or carriers which in their incooperation with the complete apparatus. Thev course of movement are brought before the apturret i! is mounted on shaft u which is supparatus of our invention. A stem machine of this portedby the base 35 on the table '21. l0

type is shown in Faganand Staudenmeir Patent The segregated wires in slots I8 and i9 are car- No. 1,655,141. One object of our invention is to rier into apertures IB and S'lfonned by the ends provide Vapparatus for feeding the longer and of the picking jaws I4 and 'Il by a movement of heavier type leading-in wires for incandescent' said jaws toward said turret as-they are then lamps. -Another objectofour invention is to profacing the turret. The jaws M'andll'are at- 15 vide apparatus for feeding leading-in wires which tached to levers 38 and 39 whichfa'sshown inFig. carries said wires between' the jaws of the stem `3, are pivotallymounted on screw 40 extending machine and deposits said wires in a speciiic locafrom slide 4 l. The slide rests in ways in the head tion therein. Another object of our invention is 42 of tubular post-43 in which it is held by. plates to provide wire feedingapparatus'which holds a My and 45 and which is Alocated within slide 46. 2 large, quantity of wires and which can be re- The forward movement of the jaws is brought loaded without stopping said apparatus. One about by rotation of cam 11, the ways of which species of the apparatus of our invention is shown are engaged by the roller 48 on pin 49 extending in the drawings and is described in the following from slide 4l. The cam el is mounted on the top Paragraphs end of shaft 5t in post #B3 and slide it which is 25 In the drawings, Figs. 1 and 2 are top and side turned through Ia gear and mechanism (not. views of a wire feeding apparatus ofour invention; shown) on thelower end thereof. 0n taking this Fie?. 3 is an exploded perspective view of the Wire position the :lawsA are closed, that is, the ends of picking and transferring jaws; and FigA is aperlevers 38 and Stare drawn together by spring 5l- 3@ speetive View oi the partsof a stem machine head extending between posts in each and the teeth in 3@ between which, and inte which,'the wires are fed. the ends ci the jaws are moved together closing As shown in the drawings, the leading-in Wires apertures et and 3l until. a wire is gripped. The it are fed from pockets ll of the turret l2 to the teeth in. the jaws are so spaced that aperture tl stem machine head partially shown at i3 by the is slightly larger than aperture Cit., rlhis conjaws lit and l5 shown at the delivery position. struction causes the closing movement to stop if 35 The pockets li are open at the top and bottom' s. wire is gripped in aperture @t leaving the wire and are attached to the turret at an angle. The in aperture 3l free, and causes movement to conleading-in wires are supported by the circular tinue if no wire is :found in aperture 36 until the plate l@ attached to the turret I2 and tendto i'all wire in aperture 3l is gripped. The closing move- 4@ outward therefrom dus to the angularity of the vment is brought about by rotation ci cam 52 until 0 pockets. The leading-in wires in the pocket from the loef part thereof is below rollers 555 and 5d on. which the feeding operation is taking place do pins and de in levers s@ and 3d respectively. not rest against the side or" the pocket but :fall The cam is mounted on pin El? which is held by against the plate il which is slotted at itl and l@ slide fili and by plate t@ on block on said slide 15 so the wires felling thereinto are separatedy from and is tamed by rotation of gear s@ also on said the remainder. Plate ll is mounted on arm E@ pin. The gear t@ meshes with the rack cut in extending from cap 2l on pipe 22 which is at slide hl which lies in ways in block F53@ and inthis tached to pipe t3 and to facilitate the separation instance is operated by engagement oi' roller ed is agitated nach and forth. The agitation rewith lever @8. Roller d2 is fastened to slide @i 50 suits from movement of lever 24 which is attached by screw Gil. Lever B3 is attached to standard @5 g to pipe 2&3 through arm 'l5 and is turned about a 'by screw and is operated by cam tti?, the ways pin 2t in table il on whchit-is mounted by mechof which. are engaged by roller t@ on screw Sie. anism (not shown). Pipe '23 is attached to pipe Cam @l is attached to shaft itl in stan @t5 iii! which is attached by blocks 2t and 3i! to table which is turned by rod ll through swiveling stud 2l and turns in said blocks. In some instances l2 and arm l.

Having gripped a leading-in wire, the jaws are now raised until said wire is free of the pockets and the other wires. An additional puff of air from pipe 8| is used to push back the other wires so they do not stick to the one removed and are drawn up with it. The jaws are raised by movement of slide 46 which moves in ways l post 88 extending from the table 21.

in bracket 14 as directed by mechanism (not shown) operating gear 15. Bracket 14 supports pin 16 on which gear 15 is mounted and is attached to table 21. The puff of air on the wire held by the jaws tends to cause it to swing outward in4 some cases so movement is prevented by the finger 11 which is mounted on post 18 extending from the bar 1S extending vbetween sides of head 42.

The jaws are now turned through 180 into the position they are shown in Figs. 1 and 2, and are moved to a location above the stem machine parts. 'I'hese movements are both caused by a clockwise turning of shaft 50, the former movement occurring as the head 42 turns and the latter movement occurring while 'said head is stationary and cam 41 is turned. The head 42 is rotated because of the friction with which collar 80 engages shaft 50 since itis drawn thereagainst by leaf spring 8|, which is held by screws 82 and 88 extending from the head 42. The full movement of the 'head is reached as stud 84- (Fig. 2) strikes pad 85 of the slide 46.

The return downward movement of jaws now occurs placing the apparatus parts in the position shown and the leading-in wire therein through the aperture in funnel 86 and the glass flare tube 81. The release of the leading-in wire is then enected by lever 63 striking roller 88 on screw 88 of slide Si and said wire falls through the aperture in funnel 80 and into the aperture in tube 8|. During these operations, the jaws 82, 83, and 84 of the stem machine head, which are more clearly shown in Fig. 4, are separated so the wire may pass therebetween. Funnels 8S and 80 are comprised of two parts which are brought together` and swing apart at the proper time intervals with respect to the wire feeding and stem head movements. In the drawings, one part of the funnels is shown attached to the shaft 85 in bracket 14 whereas a similar arrangement exists but is not shown for the other part of the funnels. Gears 86 on each shaft mesh together and are turned as required.

The feeding operation of the apparatus is repeated until in this case 200 of the 250 wires placed in the pocket Ii are removed whereupon another pocket is indexed into position. This `movement results from ratchet mechanism (not shown) and occurs as plate I1 is in the back position. The wire of the new pocket is guided into position before the plate I1 by guide wires 81 and 88, the former of which is supported by Wire 88 is mounted on arm which pivots on pin I0| in bracket |02 and normally lies back away from the leading-in wires as shown. In the rest positions of the turret I2, the roller |03 carried by arm |00 engages the teeth |04 in plate |6, but as the turret turns the roller comes over a low part thereof and the arm |00 and wire 9'8 are swung in by spring |05. The spring is located between spring posts in base 35 and arm |00. Wire 88 also withdraws the wires in the partially emptied pocket from the grooves of plate |1 so they may index out of position. Obviously other wire feeding apparatus of this type may becoupled to the apparatus described so as t0 feed any other leading-in wires required for the lamp stem. Such apparatus must be located at other positions taken by the stem head into which the described apparatus feeds.

What we claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. An apparatus for feeding wires comprising a pocket for holding a quantity of wires, a plate with a groove in one edge adapted to hold one wire at the vertex thereof, means for carrying the plate against the wires in the pocket so that they are carried into said groove, a pair of jaws adapted to grip the wire segregated by the groove, transferring means for moving said jaws to withdraw said wire from said pocket and to carry it to a delivery position and means for closing and opening the jaws at pick-up and delivery positions.

2. An apparatus for feeding wires comprising a pocket forholding a quantity of wires, a plate with a groove in one edge adapted to hold one wire at the vertex thereof, means for carrying` the plate against the wires in the pocket so that they are carried into said groove, a pipe mounted adjacent said plate adapted to emit pus of air against the wires agitating them, a pair of jaws adapted to grip the wire segregated by the groove transferring means for moving said jaws to withdraw said wire from said pocket and to carry it to a delivery position and means for closing and opening the jaws at pick-up and delivery positions.

3. An apparatus for feeding wires comprising a pocket for holding a quantity of wires, means for holding the pocket in an oblique position so said wires fall to one side, a plate with a groove in one edgethereof adapted to hold one wire at the vertex thereof, means for carrying the plate against the reclining side of the wires so that they fall into said groove, a pipe mounted adjacent said plate adapted to emit puffs of air against the wires to agitate them and to force the other wires back as the segregated wire is removed, a pair of jaws adapted to grip the wire segregated in the groove, transferring means for moving said jaws to withdraw said wire from said pocket and to carry it to a delivery position and means for closing and opening the jaws at pick-up and delivery positions.

4. An apparatus for feeding wires comprising a turret having a plurality of pockets mounted thereabout in a substantially vertical position for holding a quantity Yof wires, said turret being rotatably mounted so that it may be indexed to bring said pockets in succession to a discharge position, means .engaging the wires in each of said pockets at said discharge position for separating one of the wires from the remainder, a pair of jaws adapted to grip said wire, transferring means for moving said jaws to withdraw the wire from said pocket and carry it to a delivery position and means for closing and opening said jaws at' pick-up and delivery positions.`

5. An apparatus for feeding wires comprising a turret mounted and adapted to be indexed on a vertical axis, a plurality of substantially vertical pockets disposed about the periphery of said turret for holding a quantity of wires, said pockets having outwardly inclined outer walls, means engaging the wires in the pocket registering therewith for separating one of the wires from the remainder, means for transferring said wire to a delivery position in proper time relation to the operation of the separating means and means for lifting the wires in another of said pockets to a substantially vertical position as the turret is rotated so that the wires therein may be a1- lowed to fall sideward against the separating means on registering therewith.

6. An apparatus for feeding wires comprising a turret adapted to be indexed, a plurality oi' lsubstantially vertical pockets disposed about the periphery of said turret for holding a quantity of wires and shaped so that said wires are inclined to the vertical with their upper ends outer# most, a plate with a groove therein shaped to' hold only one wire at the base thereof mounted adjacent said turret, means for pushing back other wires back from the wire at the base, ymeans f or moving said jaws to withdraw said wire from the pocket and to carry it to a delivery position and means for closing and opening the Jaws at 10 pick-up and delivery positions.

JOHN F. DONOVAN. GEORGE ILLINGWORTH. 

